SOLI wins national award

The SOLI Chamber Ensemble has just won a national award for adventuresome programming. The award comes from two national arts organizations–Chamber Music America and American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP). SOLI will receive their award at Chamber Music America’s 35th annual conference in New York City on January 20.

For nearly two decades, SOLI Chamber Ensemble has upheld its reputation for giving new voice to 20th and 21st century classical contemporary music and for its strong commitment to commissioning new works. Known for breathing life into the music of living composers, SOLI has twice been voted “Best Chamber Ensemble” by The San Antonio Current and continues to mesmerize audiences with its cutting edge performances.

SOLI strives to break down the stereotypes linked with classical music. Devoted to high quality performances, SOLI Chamber Ensemble works to bring classical contemporary music alive for listeners who may be unfamiliar with this music. Founded in 1994, SOLI annually presents a season of innovative programs in a variety of venues, from Trinity University’s Ruth Taylor Recital Hall, to Blue Star Contemporary Art Center in South Town, to Gallery Nord, a gallery space in north San Antonio. Performing in unusual and intimate spaces allows the audiences to get up close and creates a user-friendly approach to the music. Audiences enjoy the ‘unstuffy’ nature of SOLI’s performances and the informal ambience of these unusual venues.

SOLI has commissioned 17 works in as many years from emerging and established composers. The ensemble has premiered works by Robert X. Rodriguez, Ned Rorem, Tim Kramer, David Heuser, Alexandra Garner, Jack Stamps, and others.

For years, SOLI’s commitment to education has led to numerous school performances throughout San Antonio and the surrounding region. Each season, SOLI presents short, one hour, preview concerts for young people to introduce them, our next generation of listeners, to the music of today and tomorrow.

As Trinity University’s Ensemble in Residence since 2008, SOLI performs frequently on the campus, advises and guides TUCHÉ (Trinity University student chamber ensemble), coaches student chamber groups, works with student composers in preparing works for strings, winds and piano, and conducts open rehearsals. Annually SOLI takes its residency program on tour to other universities and colleges throughout the U.S. Through the residencies SOLI reaches out to the musical voices of the next generation by working with composers and musicians on extended techniques and musicality and helping them to hone and fully communicate their message to audiences.

Recently, SOLI began outreach to audiences outside traditional concert venues. Understanding that there are many people who cannot attend SOLI concerts or hear live music of any sort, the group’s goal is to take the music to them. SOLI uses the music of our time as a tool to reach out to audiences too often overlooked and neglected; for example, people in hospitals, hospices, clinics and rehabilitation centers. In 2011-12 they will again perform for the wounded veterans undergoing care at the Center for the Intrepid, a national treatment and rehabilitation facility at Brooke Army Medical Center for veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. They will also perform for hospice residents at the San Antonio AIDS Foundation House and other care centers.

SOLI was one of the first chamber ensembles invited to perform in the first ever classical music event at the South by Southwest (SXSW) Music & Media Festival in Austin, Texas. SOLI performed the music of Steve Reich, Elliott Carter, Michael Torke, and John Adams to a sellout crowd at this Boosey & Hawkes Music Company-sponsored program.

SOLI Chamber Ensemble has received numerous awards including grants from the Aaron Copland Fund for Music, Meet the Composer, and the National Endowment for the Arts, The Russell Hill Rogers Fund for the Arts, the Argosy Foundation, The Tobin Endowment, the Cornyation Foundation, and the City of San Antonio, Office of Cultural Affairs, and others.

During the 2011-12 season, SOLI will be in residence at Illinois College in Jacksonville, where they will work with student composers and perform Cycles & Myths by the recently named Chair of the college’s Department of Music, Tim Kramer. SOLI is currently working on an extensive recording project, which will feature four works written for the ensemble, including Cycles & Myths. This recording is made possible in part by a generous grant from the Aaron Copland Fund for Music Recording.

Other highlights of the 2011-12 season include the world premiere performances of a new multi-media commission by composer Steven Mackey and video artist Mark de Chiazza in May 2012, and the world premieres of four new works inspired by Beethoven’s Grosse Fuge, op.133, as part of a citywide Beethoven festival in collaboration with the San Antonio Symphony in January 2012.